Just found out that The Scrapper was picked up for broadcast for a program called Philadelphia Stories on MiND TV. Pretty cool. Will post about scheduling when I find out more news. I had to cut a few minutes for it to fit the 30 minute time slot and I also had to take out the swearing, but I’m glad that the piece will get more exposure.

Joe and I continue to shoot together. Things are happening, so there may be a sequel in the near future. Been shooting with the Canon 5D mark ii recently. It gives a great image, but for this verite style shooting it takes a lot of finesse. I ruin tons of shots applying my regular shooting method, but when the shots are good they are really good.

I am currently working on a narrative film entitled Whispers In The Storm. Joe the Scrapper will play a character named “Walmart” who is inspired by Joe’s own life experiences. So, for those of you who can’t get enough of Joe there will be more in 2011. We are currently in production and things are going well. For more details check out: whispersinthestorm.com

There will be a free screening of “The Scrapper” along with some of my shorter work along with painter Shanna Waddell. The great Bruce James (premiere photographer) will show his documentary “God’s Critters,” which was shot in Fishtown.

These were some Holga and 35mm images taken by the amazing Bruce James on the day of the premiere…these were intentionally cheese ball…I take this work seriously, but you also have to have fun while doing it.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Scrapper Philly premiere! It was so cool. Joe had a great time and really felt respected by everyone that he met. So, thanks for being so awesome. I wish there had been more time to talk and hang out afterwards…the room was packed and I wish I could have met everyone…if you are out there please contact me or post a comment on the site. I ‘d love to hear what you think. It was crazy to go from hanging out with one dude for a few months to having a packed out theater full of viewers…Unless I really start to practice shredding on my guitar this is as close as I’m going to get to the packs of raving lunatic fans the Beatles had in the movie HELP! I can live with that…I’d rather have friends than fans.

Also, I had a bunch of little 24 page zine-style photo books that I made for the event, but I didn’t do a great job of distributing with all of the madness that comes with having a triple premiere…

If you would like one please send me a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) and I will send one to you. The enveloped can be regular sized because the book is 5 x 4…Remember the days of mail order? Here’s your chance to reminisce the old days of snail mail…

Send it to: Jonathan Olshefski 2980 Weikel St. Phila PA 19134

I will post more about the premiere later…

Written byadminComments Off on Amazing Day + Mail Order FunPosted inThe ScrapperMay 16, 2009

This is the uncut interview I did with Joe on his stoop…I chopped it up a good amount for the theatrical release, but I think the raw footage is really interesting too. The cuts you see here are moments where I turned the camera off except for one moment I cut out because it contained some personal details about my wife.

So you can see documentary is a bit of a lie…I changed the chronology of events, but I was trying to tell the story in the most cohesive way possible. In conversation we tend to repeat things and drift from subject to subject. My edits were an attempt to structure the conversation a bit more. So there ya have it…I think transparency is really important for this type of filmmaking.

Also, you might ask why I cut my dialogue completely out of the theatrical release. Well, I really wanted to create a space for the viewer to hang out with Joe. I felt like my voice was a distraction from that relationship. I wanted to mediate this relationship as little as possible. Sure, I mediated through shot choice and camera angle, but I didn’t think it was necessary for me to become a character in the piece. Though the creation of the piece was only possible through the interaction I had with Joe as we were shooting. The clip below shows the story of Joe and Jonathan. “The Scrapper” is the story of Joe and the viewer.